Hear U2’s New Single ‘You’re The Best Thing About Me’

U2 has released the second song - and first official single - from their upcoming and long-awaited album Songs of Experience. You can watch the lyric video for "You're the Best Thing About Me" above.

Despite the sweetness implied by its title, it quickly becomes apparent there's a darker undercurrent to this song. While the majority of the lyrics talk about the song's subject being "The best thing that ever happened to a boy," singer Bono also notes that "the best things are easy to destroy" - and with the last line asks himself, "why am I walking away?"

The cover photograph for "You're the Best Thing About Me" – which you can see below – was taken by longtime U2 collaborator Anton Corbijn, and features guitarist the Edge's daughter Sian Evans wearing an army helmet. This image references two previous U2 album covers: Songs of Innocence featured drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. posed in an embrace with his son, and the compilation The Best of 1980-1990 featured Bono's childhood friend Peter Rowen wearing the same headgear.

On Aug. 30, the band offered up another preview of the album in the form of a live performance video of a song entitled "The Blackout."

There's still no confirmation of when Songs of Experience will arrive. Today's post on the band's website about the new single promises only that the release date and pre-order details will be announced "soon."